My own definition of “composition” When talking about composition, the first thing that comes to mind is not only limited to writing, but actually any kind of creation, such as music, art or literature writing. So personally I would associate “composition” with “creation” and a way of “expression” of personal ideas, feelings and emotions.
In this article, the author categorize two types of writing--write to live and composition. The author defines “composition” as “writing to communicate ideas, writing designed to make others feel or understand something. It is writing that begins with an idea a writer wants to communicate.” I resonate a lot with the author’s ideas about what composition is. It is actually the true inner need for the writer, who has an idea or thinking to express, either to others, or just to him/herself.
But I find one difference between my ideas and those of the author, that is, I think this expression can either be written just for the writers themselves or be written for certain audience. The author, however, thinks “this move is the beginning move toward an audience, toward readers.” So the author thinks there should be readers or audience. But I don’t think so.
Yet we share another idea concerning composition--in the sense that it can be seen as an expression of writers’ inner world and ideas, teachers indeed seldom provide students chances to compose. Every time we ask students to write about something, we don’t care whether they have some ideas to write about the given topic; we don’t care whether they actually have something else which they want to think about and write about.
As reading this part, it is also interesting that the author mentions “writing as a content area” instead of being “done through other curriculum”. I kind of feel that this is only for native speakers, because English writing has always been a content area for our English language learner students. But the thing is, I think for Chinese students, English writing is seldom a pure content area as math, or chemistry, because if we define composition as “write to communicate ideas”, it makes little sense that our students will choose to compose in English rather than their native language when they really want to communicate something. So, it seems to me that for our Chinese students, English writing can never be pure composition. Mostly, the more important part for them to write in English is to prepare for tests. Learning to writing in this sense is not a content area. As an English teacher, it is quite confusing and discouraging. (But I guess Chinese teacher can use this idea to teach writing in Chinese.)
The author also points out that if we only ask students to write something for other content areas, they will hardly experience the importance and purpose outside their own intentions. It reminds me of something we read last week. The importance of teachers showing our genuine respect to and interest in students’ writing has been mentioned a lot of times, and it makes great sense. However, if at the very beginning, we don’t even ask students about their intentions and purposes they want to convey, how respectful can we be? Of course, for our English language learner students, learning English and take tests is a must. Therefore, what worth teachers’ consideration is also how we can combine our writing tasks with students’ intentions and purposes.
From the reading, I am also impressed by a question the author poses: Is it important that students grow up to be the kinds of people who make room for purposeful writing that enriches their lives? Or should our teaching be more pragmatically focused on writing that simply maintains their lives?
And I agree with the author that it is “a question of value”. It is a question of what we seek through education. So maybe each teacher holds a different belief. In my belief, I simply think writing actually is another option for making life easier and happier. This should be an important goal of education. Thus, I attach great importance to teaching composition to students, not just teaching them to write to maintain lives.
When talking about composition, the first thing that comes to mind is not only limited to writing, but actually any kind of creation, such as music, art or literature writing. So personally I would associate “composition” with “creation” and a way of “expression” of personal ideas, feelings and emotions.
In this article, the author categorize two types of writing--write to live and composition. The author defines “composition” as “writing to communicate ideas, writing designed to make others feel or understand something. It is writing that begins with an idea a writer wants to communicate.” I resonate a lot with the author’s ideas about what composition is. It is actually the true inner need for the writer, who has an idea or thinking to express, either to others, or just to him/herself.
But I find one difference between my ideas and those of the author, that is, I think this expression can either be written just for the writers themselves or be written for certain audience. The author, however, thinks “this move is the beginning move toward an audience, toward readers.” So the author thinks there should be readers or audience. But I don’t think so.
Yet we share another idea concerning composition--in the sense that it can be seen as an expression of writers’ inner world and ideas, teachers indeed seldom provide students chances to compose. Every time we ask students to write about something, we don’t care whether they have some ideas to write about the given topic; we don’t care whether they actually have something else which they want to think about and write about.
As reading this part, it is also interesting that the author mentions “writing as a content area” instead of being “done through other curriculum”. I kind of feel that this is only for native speakers, because English writing has always been a content area for our English language learner students. But the thing is, I think for Chinese students, English writing is seldom a pure content area as math, or chemistry, because if we define composition as “write to communicate ideas”, it makes little sense that our students will choose to compose in English rather than their native language when they really want to communicate something. So, it seems to me that for our Chinese students, English writing can never be pure composition. Mostly, the more important part for them to write in English is to prepare for tests. Learning to writing in this sense is not a content area. As an English teacher, it is quite confusing and discouraging. (But I guess Chinese teacher can use this idea to teach writing in Chinese.)
The author also points out that if we only ask students to write something for other content areas, they will hardly experience the importance and purpose outside their own intentions. It reminds me of something we read last week. The importance of teachers showing our genuine respect to and interest in students’ writing has been mentioned a lot of times, and it makes great sense. However, if at the very beginning, we don’t even ask students about their intentions and purposes they want to convey, how respectful can we be?
Of course, for our English language learner students, learning English and take tests is a must. Therefore, what worth teachers’ consideration is also how we can combine our writing tasks with students’ intentions and purposes.
From the reading, I am also impressed by a question the author poses: Is it important that students grow up to be the kinds of people who make room for purposeful writing that enriches their lives? Or should our teaching be more pragmatically focused on writing that simply maintains their lives?
And I agree with the author that it is “a question of value”. It is a question of what we seek through education. So maybe each teacher holds a different belief. In my belief, I simply think writing actually is another option for making life easier and happier. This should be an important goal of education. Thus, I attach great importance to teaching composition to students, not just teaching them to write to maintain lives.